I think many small towns are looking to the stimulus to perhaps take some sting away from state deficit and budget cuts. I don't think this is the case though. I don't see states setting up economic teams to dole out funds to small towns. By the time a city like Barnesville could put together a "committee" to draw up a plan and then submit it to the state for review and then the state cut the fat from it and possibly grant those requests....I fear we are talking a year at least. By that time too many jobs will have been lost, credit debt will have run up, businesses will have closed.

I know it seems dismal. However, if I may also point out that I think the states would push higher taxes and extra SPLOST funds to help out rather than using stimulus money.

I find it most interesting the negative feedback from the Obama Stimulus Package. Yes, there is pork in the bill. There are also billons in tax cut and funding for public works that state governments have not been able to fund themselves. Compared to the gigantic package “W” push thru last year which was essentially “cooperate welfare” due to the lack of regulation in the financial sector, Obama’s package may due some good. Some of you folks need to stop watching so much FOX TV and listening to WSB radio and start thinking for yourself.

I agree with you 'Louie.' Obama's stimulus bill (now law) may do some good. It is hard to see the quality in it though when his own cabinet is projecting failure. Coupled with the notion that "this is the beginning of the end" and you have to wonder what end Mr. President is referring to. The end of debt? The end of America? Then end of..........

Louie, maybe you should listen to Fox and get off WSB radio...come on, we as Americans elected officials who went to Washington and were forced to vote on a document which no-one had read. Come on, give us all a break. We can think for ourselves, we don't need you to do it for us. When you blame GWB for all our problems, remember when Pelosi and her gang took over the direction of our country? It, in my opinion, looks like there is enough blame to go arouond.

I think the Federal Government has way over stepped its bounds this time and needs a reminder of what its responsibilities really are. Georgia needs to send the Federal Government a 10th Amendment Resolution.

THE STIMULUS IS A STEP TOWARDS A SOVIET AMERICA
Written by Senator Tom Coburn Tuesday, 10 February 2009

[Senator Coburn recently gave this speech on the floor> of
the Senate We are going in exactly the wrong direction. We ought
to be standing on the principles that made this country great.

There ought to be a review of every program in the
Federal Government that is not effective, that is not
efficient, that is wasteful or fraudulent, and we ought to get
rid of it right now. We ought to say, Gone, to be able to pay
for a real stimulus plan that might, in fact, have some impact.

I would be remiss if I didn't remind everybody
that next week we are going to hear from the Obama
administration wanting another $500 billion. Outside of this
["stimulus" bill], they are going to want another
$500 billion to handle the banking system.

I want to make sure the American people know what is
in this Stimulus bill. I think once they know what is in
this bill, they are going to reject it out of hand. Let me
read for my colleagues some of the things that are in this
bill.

The biggest earmark in history is in this bill. There
is $2 billion in this bill to build a coal plant with zero
emissions. That would be great, maybe, if we had the
technology, but the greatest brains in the world
sitting at MIT say we don't have the technology yet to do
that.

Why would we build a $2 billion powerplant we
don't have the technology for that we know will come back
and ask for another $2 billion and another $2 billion and
another $2 billion when we could build a demonstration project
that might cost $150 million or $200 million? There is
nothing wrong with having coal-fired plants that don't
produce pollution; I am not against that. Even the Washington
Post said the technology isn't there. It is a boondoggle. Why
would we do that?

We eliminated tonight a $246 million payback for the
large movie studios in Hollywood.

We are going to spend $88 million to study whether we
ought to buy a new ice breaker for the Coast Guard. You know
what. The Coast Guard needs a new ice breaker. Why do we
need to spend $88 million? They have two ice breakers now that
they could retrofit and fix and come up with equivalent to
what they needed to and not spend the $1 billion they are
going to come back and ask for, for another ice breaker, so
why would we spend $88 million doing that?

We are going to spend $448 million to build the
Department of Homeland Security a new building. We have $1.3
trillion worth of empty buildings right now, and because it has
been blocked in Congress we can't sell them, we can't
raze them, we can't do anything, but we are going to
spend money on a new building here in Washington.

We are going to spend another $248 million for new
furniture for that building; a quarter of a billion dollars
for new furniture. What about the furniture the Department
of Homeland Security has now? These are tough times.
Should we be buying new furniture? How about using what we
have? That is what a family would do. They would use what
they have. They wouldn't go out and spend $248 million
on furniture.

How about buying $600 million worth of hybrid vehicles? Do
you know what I would say? Right now times are tough;
I would rather Americans have new cars than Federal
employees have new cars. What is wrong with the cars we have?
Dumping $600 million worth of used vehicles on the used
vehicle market right now is one of the worst things we could
do. Instead, we are going to spend $600 million buying new
cars for Federal employees.

There is $400 million in here to prevent STDs. I have
a lot of experience on that. I have delivered 4,000 babies.
We don't need to spend $400 million on STDs. What we
need to do is properly educate about the infection rates
and the effectiveness of methods of prevention. That
doesn't take a penny more. You can write that on one piece of
paper and teach every kid in this country, but we don't
need to spend $400 million on it. It is not a priority.

How about $150 million for a Smithsonian museum? Tell
me how that helps get us out of a recession. Tell me how
that is a priority. Would the average American think that
is a priority that we ought to be mortgaging our kids'
future to spend another $150 million at the Smithsonian?

How about $1 billion for the 2010 census? So everybody
knows, the census is so poorly managed that the census
in 2010 is going to cost twice what it cost 10 years ago,
and we wasted $800 million on a contract because it was
no-bid that didn't perform. Nobody got fired, no competitive
bidding, and we blew $800 million.

We have $75 million for smoking cessation activities,
which probably is a great idea, but we just passed a bill,
the SCHIP bill, that we need to get 21 million more
Americans smoking to be able to pay for that bill. That
doesn't make sense.

How about $200 million for public computer centers at
community colleges? I mean, did we talk with Dell and
Hewlett-Packard and say, How do we make you all do
better? Is there not a market force that could make that
better? Will we actually buy on a true competitive bid?

No, because there is nothing that requires competitive
bidding in anything in this bill. There is nothing
that requires it. It is one of the things President Obama
said he was going to mandate at the Federal Government, but
there is no competitive bidding in this bill at all.

We have $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas.
Well, that will put 10 or 15 people to work. Is that a
priority for us right now?

There is $6 billion to turn Federal buildings into
green buildings. That is a priority, versus somebody getting
a job outside of Washington, a job that actually produces
something, that actually increases wealth?

How about $500 million for State and local fire stations?
Where do you find in the Constitution us paying for
local fire stations within our realm of prerogatives? None
of it is competitively bid.

Next is $1.2 billion for youth activities. Who does
that employ? What does that mean?

How about $88 million for renovating the public health
service building? You know, if we could sell half of
the $1.3 trillion worth of properties we have, we could
take care of every Federal building requirement and backlog
we have.

Then there's $412 million for CDC [Centers for
disease Control] buildings and property. We spent billions on
a new center and headquarters for CDC. Is that a priority?
If we are going to spend $412 million on building buildings,
let's build one that will produce something, one
that will give us something.

How about $850 million for that most
"efficient'' Amtrak that hasn't made any money since 1976 and
continues to have $2 billion or $3 billion a year in
subsidies?

Here is one of my favorites: $75 million to construct
a new "security training'' facility for State
Department security officers. We already have four other
facilities already available to train them. But they want theirs.
By the way, it is going to be in West Virginia. I wonder
how that got there.

So we are going to build a new training facility that
duplicates four others that we already have that could
easily do what we need to do. But because we have a
stimulus package, we are going to add in oink pork.

How about $200 million in funding for a lease - not
buying, but a lease - of alternative energy vehicles on
military installations?

We are going to bail out the States on Medicaid. Total
all of the health programs in this, and we are going to
transfer $150 billion out of the private sector and we are
going to move it to the Federal Government. You talk about
backdooring national health care.

Henry Waxman has to be smiling big today. He wants a
single-payer Government-run health care system. We are
going to move another $150 billion to the Federal Government
from the private sector.

We are going to eliminate fees on loans from the Small
Business Administration. You know what that does? That
pushes productive capital to unproductive projects. It
is exactly the wrong thing to do.

We are going to spend $524 million for information
technology upgrades that the Appropriations Committee
claims will create 388 jobs. If you do the math on that, that
is $1.5 million a job. Don't you love the efficiency
of Washington thinking?

We are going to create $79 billion in additional money
for the States, a "slush fund,'' to bail out
States and provide millions of dollars for education costs. How
many of you think that will ever go away?

Once the State education programs get $79 billion over
2 years, do you think that will ever go away? The cry
and hue of taking "our money" away, even though it
was a stimulus and supposed to be limited, it will never go
away. So we will continue putting that forward until our
kids have grandkids of their own.

There is about $47 billion for a variety of energy
programs that are primarily focused on renewable energy. I am
fine with spending that. But we ought to get something for
it. There ought to be metrics. There are no metrics. It is
pie in the sky, saying we will throw some money at it.

Let me conclude by saying we are at a seminal moment
in our country. We will either start living within the confines of
realism and responsibility or we will blow it and we will
create the downfall of the greatest nation that ever lived.

This bill is the start of that downfall. To abandon a
market-oriented society and transfer it to a
Soviet-style, government-centered, bureaucratic-run and mandated
program, that is the thing that will put the stake in the heart
of freedom in this country.

I hope the American people know what is in this bill.
I am doing everything I can to make sure they know. But
more important, I hope somebody is listening who will treat
the "pneumonia'' we are faced with today, which
is the housing and mortgage markets. It doesn't matter
how much money we spend in this bill. It is doomed to failure
unless we fix that problem first.

Failing that, we will go down in history as the
Congress that undermined the future and vitality of this
country. Let it not be so.

Louie, the reason people might be negative toward the stimulus bill is because within a month of being elected, Obama has already renigged on his campaign's main promises of change. 1) By your own admission, their is pork in the bill. Obama said,in his exact words, he would go "line by line with his pen and mark through all earmarks, pet projects, and pork" as president. Lie #1. 2) He said before any bill would be signed during his presidency it would be posted on the internet for 10 days to add transparancy of government to the American people. He hasn't done this any bill he has signed so far. Lie #2. 3) He would continue to support our military 100%. In one of his first pieces if signed legislation, he cuts the defense department budget while giving Pelosi money to study a swamp and Reid billions to build a railtran. Lie #3.

It's funny how the republicans, after exporting our industrial base and watching over the largest increase in spending in history, suddenly all found God.

What works for the Republicans is the same as what works for the Democrats. Divide the people and shaft the working midlle class without letting them know it is happening. The way this works is exactly what is going on now. They drum up some personal hate and get us all busy arguing about things that make no difference at all while they sneak around shafting us all.

The reason we are in this mess now is deregulation, poor trade deals, bad energy policy, and tax cuts for the rich while the middle class got shafted picking up most of the expenses.

None of them, Republicans included, have our country's best interests at heart. What is in their hearts is getting re-elected and staying in power.

I actually think Obama is an exception to this but he doesn't fully understand trade or technology yet. The only guy that could have saved us was Ross Perot, but it is too late now no matter what we do. We have little manufacturing, we have little energy, our schools pretty much all have seriously degenerated. We are in a position where nothing can really fix the problems except letting it all collapse.

Hating and baiting each other while this happens won't help. When we are so poor no one will sell anything to us, then we will change. Better get there sooner than later.

I think you may want to check the facts anonymous. Democratic President Bill Clinton passed NAFTA. Democrats have controlled the Senate and the Congress for the past 5 years. They also chaired the majority of committees and sub committees. These are the chambers of govt that actually create and pass legislation. Iraq was a must. You probably don't know but muslim extremist highjacked airplanes and flew them into buildings on American soil killing thousand of innocent Americans. And I know the media barely took notice, but Iraq just had their second democratic style election. Obama has already renigged on several campaign promises so as far as I am concerned, he's just another stuffed suit who can read good speeches written by someone else.

it would be nice to have some money from all that. if they are giving it out! it really would, we could do alot. but lets be real we will never see any of that money and to me thats ok. we do well with what we have our town is nice for the most part. we try to keep our streets up(i know there are still some bad ones)we have trees and flowers and the sidewalks up town are nice.we do well,i think.i dont know if giving away money that we dont have to people that can not pay it back is a good idea anyway.and then in the long run we the small people will be the ones to get the bill for the debt. we will pay it back in taxes and whatever other way they can think of to cover it.sure i wish we had more jobs here more work for people,because that is what this whole thing is set up to do right?!make new jobs! times are not the best right now for anyone.but givin out money that we dont have to people who we all know will not use it for what it is to be used for to me is not the best of ideas.i just want to put in that i am not aginst obama so all people who want to start yelling at me about obama this and that i dont care to hear it i think he is a good man with a hard job. not a job i would ever like to have! i am just not sure about the money give out i was not sure about it when bush was giving out money. so please

Who else are they going to sell it to. The whole world is in this fix. What is going to change is our standard of living. This country is going to go through a reality check that is going to be sobering. It's been too good for too long.

The terrorists came from Afghanistan and Pakistan's border area, not Iraq. We were so stupid we went into the wrong country and now we are stuck there.

The Republicans are leading you around by the nose-ring.

The fix we are in started seriously with Regan and deregulation, and earlier from bad trade deals. We started making bad trade deals way back in the 70's. We now have virtually no manufacturing left thanks to both the Republicans and Democrats we elect. We have nothing to sell, nothing much to build, and so everything we consume takes the wealth our fathers built up and ships it overseas.

When we spend out of country for long drawn out senseless wars, for energy, for goods, for labor, and even for assistance with phone calls much of what we spend goes out of country and never comes back.

That makes us poorer and poorer by the second.

Now you can live in your fantasy land that somehow this is all a Democrats fault, or because we have have a bunch of people not working, or because taxes are too high, but the fact is we are all being played by both political parties. We are mismanaged to the point where we have no jobs left, no resources to sell, and can't even make smart choices about where to fight our real enemies.

This is all because we stopped thinking and let the politicians divide us. It's the same thing Hitler did.

Typical democrat, disagee with them and they start shouting insults. As far as where the terrorist came from, how do you explain the death of over 5,000 al queda militants in Iraq by coalition security forces?

While every one is checking their facts, some of you should be checking for brain waves. Our real trouble began when Bush convinced a bunch of sheep that being patriotic meant to not question him or his policies. That we shut up and follow him or the terrorist will get us. He proceded to rape America and let all his greedy, ultra-rich buddies have a turn at her. He corrupted everything he touched. He wiped his ass on that constitution and threw it in our faces. Get over that tax increase that will effect two or three people in Barnesville. America must look after it's people. That is the job of any government. People like Rush and O'Riley are making a fat living playing on your fears. What happened to common sence? Tax cuts for the very wealthiest among us while our most precious treasure is sacrificed in a war that should never have been fought. Bin Laden mocks us and continues in his mission against us. Oh yeah, forgot, now socialism is the enemy.

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